Vocational Education for Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (VECADA)

Excessive emissions of greenhouse gases resulting from the past and ongoing activities of industrialized nations are contributing to the rising temperature of the Earth and causing global climate change.

Changing weather patterns, along with extreme weather events, are severely affecting agricultural production, which is the mainstay of a greater percentage of the population.

Unpredictable weather conditions continue to lead to significant crop failures and loss of investments.

Torrential rainfall and heavy floods destroy crops, causing farmers to lose their investments.

Drought and desertification keep diminishing the amount of arable land, rendering large expanse of lands unusable for farming.
Herds of cattle migrating away from the dry areas in search of green pastures end up destroying and eating up crops of farmers, causing serious losses.

Gully erosion and landslides wash away and bury farmlands and crops on a large scale.

All of these factors, among others, are causing serious loss of livelihoods, increasing unemployment and fueling widespread poverty in a continent that bears no responsibility for the climate crisis.

“It is a lack of economic hope or opportunity that leads a young man to carry an AK47 and join a terrorist or bandit group.” – Tony Elumelu, African Economist.

Violent agitations, armed robbery and kidnappings are on a steady rise as jobless youths become increasingly vulnerable and get easily recruited by armed gangs.

Foreign expats are important targets for these armed gangs who kidnap the expats either for ransom or out rightly kill them as a way to vent their frustrations.
An example of such attacks is the one that killed four staff of the United States embassy in Nigeria who were on a visit to Anambra State (the gully erosion hotspot).

Unemployment and increasing poverty is seeing more youthful population toe the path of advance fee fraud and online dating scams, which are particularly targeted at high income nations where uncountable number of unsuspecting victims lose substantial amounts of money.

The joblessness and insecurity is leading millions of other young Africans to seek greener pastures in high income nations such as the United States, the UK, Canada, Australia and others, causing serious migration crisis in the host countries.

It is crucial for the global community, particularly industrialized nations, to provide the necessary assistance to help Africans cope with these climate challenges.

In the words of Antonio Guterres, the United Nations Secretary General, “supporting those suffering from the impacts of climate change is a moral, social and economic imperative”.